Sunday, August 5, 2012

A wench with no conscience: The latest pirate pursuit

8/4/2012

There is another pirate on the loose, and we are organizing now to put her out of business. Check her monthly list of pirated works RIGHT HERE to see if you or your favorite author is being ripped off. This pirate organization likes to put up a front with a legitimate, although not very believable looking website, in order to get email subscriptions. Then, every month in an email, this biblio-buccaneer sends out a link to the latest list of pirated books. Unlike some other shifty pirates, there is no phony attempt at claiming a charitable cause, there is not a notice of claiming it is a library, there is no pretending to have an ideology. This organization simply wants to profit off of authors without their knowledge, plain and simple. We need your help! Check the list. Contact me to become a volunteer for this movement. Tell your author friends or supporters of this cause. We need to make this one go away. 
#PiratesAhoy !
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IMPORTANT NOTE: We are all anxious to see our work and craft remain in our control. However, if strong efforts are used in the wrong way, movements can do more harm than good. No Pirates only targets those who are breaking the law. There are rogue authors with good intentions who may be wasting efforts which may be better spent by rallying against illegitimate companies. Sometimes authors are not in agreement with the practices of certain legal companies, for whatever idealistic reason. Please do not confuse their efforts with those of my group. I take the proper steps to ensure that the people and organizations involved with illegal pirating of our work are the ones we target. I understand that as the industry grows, the way the eBooks are handled and distributed will morph into something tolerable for all parties. In the meantime, some models are better than others. 
#PiratesAhoy !
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UPDATE: 8/5/2012

A few dedicated members of the No Pirates group have been diligently working to contact authors who are on the list of pirated works. We have quietly been emailing instructions to the authors as to how they should deal with this, in case they aren't yet aware how the process works. While it will take quite some time to contact each and every author (there are about 1,000 pages of authors in this month's list), the goal is to shut down the pirate. If the dozens of authors and publishers we have contacted decide to take action, it may be enough to take her down, and it will not be necessary to contact anyone else at that point. Our efforts have brought plenty of email addresses into the loop, and by the end of the day on Monday we should see some results we are hoping for. Thank you to those who have been supporting our effort!
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 UPDATE: 8/6/2012

 As expected, the list of pirated authors has already been removed. The effectiveness of our group gets better and better by the day. It is unconfirmed at this time whether PayPal has discontinued services or not. We have also notified the email service provider, since this pirate was using their email services to conduct illegal activities. Again, there is no confirmation as to whether or not they have complied with our requests. Nonetheless, anyone visiting this pirate page hoping to buy an eBook illegally will be disappointed, and hopefully discouraged enough to not deal with this pirate, going forward. Great job, group! Way to continue to win battles on the high seas!
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 UPDATE: 8/10/2012

Since the pirated author page was removed, there is no actual "proof" of fraudulent activity. Due to this, PayPal cannot restrict activities. This makes sense, and No Pirates will take this into consideration as we formulate the strategy for our next movement. Thank you for your support!
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If you or anyone you know would like to be a member of the activist group No Pirates, please visit my Facebook page and message me. Thanks for your support!
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Stephen L. Wilson
No Pirates Founder
Smashwords Home Page
Like me on Facebook
@wilsonstephenl

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for your efforts, Stephen. I'll share your blog address w/friends and fans and watch for opportunities to raise e-piracy awareness.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Susan,

    Thank you for your support. Our group works hard every day to make sure our work is protected. If we continue to chip away at and bring awareness to this issue, then we will be able to have a hand in how our craft evolves. Thanks again! I am looking forward staying in touch.

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  3. Checking the link to her list of pirated works, I receive an error stating the page has been removed. Hopefully, this is true--and not just a problem with my computer.

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    Replies
    1. Pat,

      You will be pleased to know that the pirated author list is no longer available. This pirate was disabled about three hours ago. See the update above. Thank you for your continued support! #PiratesAhoy !

      Delete
  4. The odd thing is... I have no idea who this person even was/is. She undoubtedly will set up shop elsewhere--they always do--but if we don't know her name, we won't know whom to watch out for. How about publishing list of successful campaigns, or just a "wall of shame?"

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    Replies
    1. The odd thing is... I have no idea who this person even was/is. She undoubtedly will set up shop elsewhere--they always do--but if we don't know her name, we won't know whom to watch out for.


      Pat, this particular pirate was brought to my attention by a member of the No Pirates group. The member has been fighting this issue for a year. This particular pirate is sneaky in that you will not know who she is. She is not a bold counter-revolutionary, or idealist like the pirates at TUEBL. The members of our group have all of the information they need - Name, address, location, ISP, phone number, etc. I am not sure why this is a concern, however. Maybe I need more information regarding your concern, but isn't it enough peace of mind to know that you don't have to know any of this information, and that a concerned group of citizens and fellow authors are working on your behalf to stop her, regardless?


      How about publishing list of successful campaigns, or just a "wall of shame?"

      Maybe at some point this could be considered. I am not sure of all of the legal ramifications regarding this, though. For now, just be wary of an organization working under the names "Buy Ebooks Now" or "Affordable Ebooks." They are both the names being used by an illegal pirate who publishes lists of thousands of pages per month of ebooks, and profits directly from their sales. The authors have no knowledge of this, and are in no way compensated. It is straight up theft.

      Delete
  5. Thanks for getting the job done, Pat. Another site out there, firstload.com - had my books on their site for FREE download. I contacted them with a take down notice and they've stated my books are now removed. Check them out, Google your books!!!

    ReplyDelete

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